Crying Wolf After Bell Split

Let's try it once again: If it ain't broke, don't fix it. American Telephone & Telegraph Co. wasn't broke, far from it. Ma Bell's communication system was the envy of the world.

But the federal government, prodded by small competitors, decided years ago to "fix" it. AT&T fought a costly, losing battle to remain intact, but the federal courts ordered divestiture of its operating companies, leaving AT& T with its long-distance lines and Bell Laboratories.

Now Ma Bell's customers are howling - and so are some of the same companies that claimed the system's giant size made it impossible to compete.

The Washington Post reported the other day:

"The transition to a competitive long-distance telephone system Co. - is not working, and if the government does not step in to ease the birth pangs, competition maybe dead before it takes its first real breath.

"So claim MCI Communications Corp., GTE Sprint, Satellite Business Systems (SBS) and other long-distance rivals of AT&T, all of which are lining up to recite a litany of complaints to the Federal Communications Commission and Congress."

GTE Sprint went to the trouble of commissioning a study, which determined that AT&T's rivals would have to spend $6 billion more in the next five years to build their networks sufficiently to compete. That would mean, the study found, that some companies might not survive.

Before the breakup, the FCC allowed the smaller companies to pay less for long-distance access to the operating companies than AT&T paid. With that advantage, they began building.

Now, quite logically, the FCC says competitors should pay the operating companies the same as AT&T does for equal access.

But there are conversion problems, the rivals argue, and, if they are to complete conversion, the costs will be astronomical. They contend they still need discounts, particularly because AT&T will drop its long-distance rates 5.6 percent more in June.

An AT&T spokesman responds: "The process that is currently in place is exactly the way MCI wanted it and Judge (Harold) Greene (who presided over the breakup of the Bell System) wanted it. And now our competitors are unhappy; we are never going to finish the list."

And a high-ranking FCC official says the competitors must face facts. He added "They are Fortune 500 people. This is a process of competition, business winners and business losers."

That's precisely the point. The competitors wanted to compete with a scaled-down Bell System. Now they have the opportunity. Like it or not, they should compete on an equal basis.